


Why Won’t You Notice Me?

by averxyz



Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Byeler - Freeform, Gay tho, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, angstyyyyyyy kinda, byler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 20:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13888425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/averxyz/pseuds/averxyz
Summary: will tries to flirt with mike. will isn’t that great at it, but he’s really trying.





	Why Won’t You Notice Me?

**Author's Note:**

> fic prompt came from @erstwhilemagic on tumblr and I wrote it so here you go lol. i didn’t incorporate EVERYTHING suggested into this but this is way it turned out lol. idk if its good, but i actually tried.

It was freshman year for the party, 1985. Max and Lucas had been dating ever since the Snowball of eighth grade. Dustin was still single, despite his efforts and constant advice from lady’s man Steve Harrington. Mike and El still had their little thing. They hadn’t officially started dating yet, but they might as well have been. They definitely had feelings for each other. Will wished he was the one that got to look at Mike with heart eyes. Well he had been, since the fourth grade, but he never got to see Mike’s big brown eyes looking back at him the same way he looked at his best friend. He wished he could have that more than anything in the world.

The party was sitting around the lunch table, eating what they had packed for lunch that day. Dustin was sitting next to Lucas, who was sitting next to Max. Max never brought a lunch, she always took a little bit of what everyone had to offer her. She never had to put any effort in, and always got the best of everyone’s lunches. El took a seat next to Max who was now not sitting next to Mike anymore. That left Will, since the table was a circle he sat right in between Dustin and Mike. He wasn’t going to complain.

  
El pecked Mike on the cheek and he started to blush, his eyes darting down and focusing on his lunch, embarrassed. Will watched with curious eyes, wondering what made her so attractive to Mike. He then looked back at Mike and found himself thinking of all the reasons why he was attracted to his best friend sitting next to him. He then realized that he was probably looking at him too long, too long for him to like him as just friends. Mike and El had they’re own conversation going all lunch long. Will talked to Dustin once in a while, but most of his focus was on the couple next to him. He wanted to talk to Mike all lunch long and have their own little world. He wish it didn’t have to be this way.

  
That was the thought on his mind for most of the day. Throughout the rest of his periods, until he got home. While he was riding his bike, he thought of his best friend, as he does most of the time. He wanted him to like him back so very badly. He didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like he was gay like Will, of course not, he was basically dating El. Will wished he could hate her. Truth is he loved her like a sister, which made the whole situation worse. He didn’t want to hurt any of his friends by explaining his feelings, that would ruin everything. He didn’t want to deteriorate any of his friendships by coming out to them. He loved them, and didn’t want any of them to think of him differently.

  
Will peddled his bike into his driveway and used his kickstand to put it up against his garage door. He grabbed his house key out of the smallest compartment in his backpack and unlocked the front door. He set his things down by the door and turned on the TV. He didn’t have any homework. That gave him most of the night to think about Mike. Again.

  
He found himself watching the Goonies for the millionth time. I guess you can say he had a routine. The Goonies could always make him laugh, even after everything he went through last year. It took his mind off the events that went on during his life. He had finished the movie and he used the remote to flip the channels before deciding he didn’t want to watch TV anymore.

  
He couldn’t get his mind off Mike, he didn’t know how. He didn’t want to sit and pine from a distance anymore. He’s had enough of that. He wants to do something, anything, if it just gets Mike to notice him. If only he could act like El did. Touch his shoulder, and bat her eyes, and flirt like she could. Wait. Could he?  
He dumped out all the quarters he had saved up for the arcade into his bed. He gathered them all and shoved them into his backpack before biking to the nearest convenience store.

  
He bought every magazine he could find that had tips and tricks like how to flirt and how to tell if someone likes you. The cashier giggled and wished him good luck with the girl he trying to impress. He nodded with a smile, thinking about the very much boy he was going to try and impress. He needed all the help he could get, without asking anyone for it of course, that would be too embarrassing.

  
He biked back to his house, admiring the different colors of leaves surrounding him. He loved autumn. It was his favorite time of year. He biked home fast so that he could get home before his mom and brother. He didn’t want them asking questions about why he had been out, and he definitely didn’t want his mom breathing down his neck and scolding him for being out so late without telling her.

  
He grabbed some sheets of paper he would usually use to draw on, and started jotting down notes. He wanted his little plan to work so badly. He wrote down until his hand got tired and his mom told him to go to bed. The next day, Will was going to put his plan into action- he was going to flirt with Mike Wheeler. He went to sleep with a smile on his face that night for the first time in a long while.

  
The next day Will was at lunch, he told Mike he liked his shirt. It was a little awkward but Mike seemed happy. Will blushed, but that wasn’t enough. He wanted more of his attention. The day after that during the middle of lunch Mike’s hair kept on getting in his face as he ate his food, and it was genuinely bothering Will. This was his chance again, he had remember what the magazine said; complement them (check), give them little touches, now that’s something that he could use. He reached his hand out and swept Mike’s hair behind his ear and gave him a little smile.

  
“Your hair was in the way,” he said innocently, only blinking his eyes once. He retracted his hand.

  
“Thanks,” Mike mumbled back, mouth stuffed full of his sandwich (and perhaps hair if it had really gotten in the way) that he had been eating.

  
Will turned back to his lunch, trying to hide his blush. How would he be able to amp it up if even the smallest interactions made him feel funny inside? He didn’t know. And that terrified him. All he knew was, he was going to keep on doing it.

  
The next day during Math class he was going to really kick into gear and put all of his knowledge on flirting (or lack thereof) to the test. Will asked Mike for help on a problem because he said he didn’t understand it. He liked it when Mike’s eyes lit up when people asked for his help. It made Mike feel important, and of use. Will liked the passion in his voice when explaining the things he knew.

  
“Do you get it now?” Mike asked with bright eyes, content in the way he explained it, anxiously awaiting his friend’s answer.

  
“Yeah,” he smiled and looked back at him, “that makes a lot more sense now.” He looked back down at the graph. The corners of Mike’s lips curled into a small smile.

  
“It’s not that hard if you figure out what the x and y values represent, and if you also determine whether the function is linear or exponential.” Will smiled again as the bell rang. He got up from us seat and leaned down to press his lips to Mike’s cheek.

  
“Thanks Mike,” he said looking into his eyes, and then scrambling for his stuff and rushing out of the room as fast as he could, his heart racing.Mike’s eyes went wide from shock. Not that he hated what Will had done, no- not at all. He had quite enjoyed it. He gathered all his stuff and went out of the room with a content smile.

  
Later that night Will found himself very happy with the way the day’s events played out. What else could he do? He had really tried everything he could manage to get from the magazines he bought. Maybe he could witness some real life flirting in action to really get a grasp of what to do in the situations he wanted to get himself into. Now that he thought about it, Nancy was coming over later that night. Perfect.

  
Nancy had arrived and she and Jonathan were snuggled together on the couch. Will debated whether or not to take notes on them. He decided not to, that would be weird. But he would take mental notes. He sat at the kitchen table, his focus was on the couch in the other room.

  
Nancy would giggle at most of the things Jonathan would say. Okay, noted. Nancy had a nice little smile on her face that made her seem content, which made his brother happy. Alright, that makes sense. Jonathan complimented Nancy’s hair. Okay, he already knew that, move on to something he didn’t already know. It had been a while and Will was getting bored of watching the couple before him. Then out of the blue Nancy looked at him. It wasn’t a normal look. It was more of a, needy look? Like as if she were toying with him. But in more of a, sexy, kind of way? In a matter of seconds they were making out on the couch. Okay, session over. Gross.

  
Despite his live action flirting example being cut short, he did learn something new. What was that look that Nancy gave him? Why did they just pounce on each other so fast? Will went into his room and locked the door. He went in front of the mirror. He tried to mimic the look that Nancy gave Jonathan. He tried batting his eyes, and squinting, and opening them, and looking intensely into his own eyes to nail the look. He thinks he got it, but oh boy did he not.

  
Math class rolled around again and Will wanted to try out his new techniques. He looked next to him and tried to give Mike the best bedroom-like eyes he could. He also slapped on a coy smile Nancy had on most of the night before.Mike had spotted Will out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and his eyes widened at the sight. Will literally looked like he had gone mad. His eye was twitching profusely, yet he had a big goofy grin on his face. He didn’t know how to react.  
“Will… buddy… you okay? Have you got something in your eye?” Will stopped his actions quickly, embarrassed.

  
“No,” he said trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. Will turned his head back down to his paper, suddenly more interested in the pencil his left hand was holding. Mike didn’t ask. Will had been acting a little off all week.

  
Will figured out what his specialty wasn’t. He was never going to do that again. He was so stupid. Flirting did NOT work out for him. Maybe he should just give up. But he really didn’t want to. He was going to give flirting one last shot. He would probably give up after that. The whole idea was stupid anyways.

  
Math class came again the next day. At this point it was more like try-to-flirt-with-Mike-class. Most of the period had went by quickly. The math teacher told people to partner up for the next project and naturally the two boys had chosen each other.

  
They worked on the problems together and laughed a few times. Things were going well. He was going to try his last attempt at flirting with Mike. Will looked at Mike and pretend as if his eye caught something on Mike’s face.

  
“What?” Mike chuckled.

  
“You have an eyelash Mike.” Will reached out and touched Mike’s cheekbone, he was intently focused on the literal nothing he was grabbing.

  
Mike’s breath hitched in his throat. Will was so close to him. What was this feeling? Why was his heartbeat speeding up so fast?

  
“There,” he said looking into his eyes. He flicked his fingers as if he was getting rid of it. “Got it,” he smiled.

  
He wanted to stay there in Mike’s eyes forever. He knew he couldn’t. He turned back around into his seat and focused his gaze back on the paper below him. He looked to see if anything had phased Mike. He seemed fine. It hadn’t worked, nothing had. At least- that’s what he thought. What he didn’t know was that his best friend sitting next to him was trying to hide his blush that came from the actions of the other boy. Mike didn’t know what was happening. He had a warm feeling all around, and his fingers tingled, but in a good way. The only other person that made him feel this way was El.. Wait, No? It couldn’t be? Why did the boy next to him make his head feel all fuzzy? Why couldn’t he take his eyes off of him either? No. No way. He stole what he told himself was one last glance of the smaller boy next to him, before putting his attention back into his work. Only, he couldn’t. He wasn’t focused on the problems laid out before him, only on his best friend sitting next from him.

  
Mike went home that night and thought about his best friend. Not in the way he usually did. No, not at all. Why did he think of his friend like this? His dad said that being gay was not okay. So he wasn’t, no way. Besides, he had El, right? If Mike was completely honest with himself, the puppy love had worn off. He remembered the 353 days he had tried to contact her. He realized for the first time that he didn’t like her. He liked the thought of her. Calling out into oblivion for 353 days without an answer. She was the nice girl. The perfect girl. She liked him, yeah? So why wouldn’t he like her back. Maybe that was the problem. Yes, he used to have a crush on her, but, he had grown a lot since the seventh grade. But his crush was not one of those things that grew along with his age and body length. He had harbored what he thought were feelings for her for a long time, without even questioning whether or not if that’s what he wanted. And he finally did. And that’s not what he wanted.  
Will was done with flirting. He had tried, and he had failed. He really didn’t know what he thought would come of his efforts anyways. That didn’t mean that he still wouldn’t pine for him in the distance. He was okay with that. That would be nice for a while. He had the rest of the weekend to recuperate anyways. Or so he thought.

  
Mike called Will. He wanted to sleepover at his house. Will of course said yes happily, with his mother’s permission of course. He knew it would be hard to get over the guy he would legitimately be sleeping next to, but he was alright with that.

  
Mike on the other hand needed to know, and he needed to know now. He needed to know what these feelings were towards Will. He tried to think of all the ways he would try to put his feelings into words, actions maybe. He came to one conclusion. He had to be around Will to feel these feelings again. So he decided that a sleepover would be the best idea. He wanted to prove to himself that these feelings were normal for a teenage boy like himself. It was normal to want to hold hands with another boy. It was okay to want to kiss him too. Yeah totally, as long as you don’t do it right? For- for sure. For sure. Yeah.

  
Mike arrived at Will’s house a little after six. His heart was beating fast. “It’s nothing,” Mike told himself. He didn’t believe his own words.

  
He walked up with his heart pounding and the quick knocks he made on the door matched up with the pounding with his heartbeat. Will opened the door with a smile. Mike found himself smiling right back.

  
“So you going to come in, or?” Will asked.

  
“Oh, yeah. Right,” he laughed and smacked his forehead like he forgot something. Perhaps he forgot how to act around Will.

  
They had fun goofing around, watching TV, eating snacks, regular teenage boy things. Mike tried to tell himself that. But the more time he spent with Will, the less regular he felt. He wanted to spend all night gazing into Will’s olive green eyes, holding his hand. This was not normal. He didn’t know what to do. Mike and Will had ended up playing with action figures. Neither knew how they ended up playing with toys, but they were having fun.

  
They were both fighting over the Yoda because they both wanted to be him. They were pulling him, then they ended up standing and they ended up waging a full on war. They both ended up tumbling to the ground laughing. Will looked over at Mike and his big brown eyes. It sucked he could never call him his own. Mike got up laughing.

  
“Here, let me help you up.” Mike crouched over and extended his long arm down to will. He took his hand happily. He stood up and felt himself not letting go of his hand. He reluctantly released his grasp and looked away blushing. Mike was still looking at him. He turned his head to look back at Mike. Oh god. He wanted to kiss him so badly. But he couldn’t.

  
Will looks into both of his eyes and then his gaze ends up on his best friend’s lips. No. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care if this ends badly. He doesn’t care if Mike isn’t gay. He doesn’t care that Mike doesn’t know that he’s gay. He doesn’t care if Mike will push him away and call him names. He doesn’t care if the entire school does. If he doesn’t kiss Mike right now, he will regret it for the rest of his life. So he won’t, and he does what he thought he would never muster the courage for. He pulls Mike’s shirt down and crashes his lips into the tall figure standing in front of him. He’s so intently focused on his own fears that he doesn’t realize that Mike isn’t pulling away. Mike isn’t pulling away. They stay like that got a few seconds, adjusting to the new feeling. It was a good feeling. Mike put his hand against Will’s cheek. This was right. Everything about this felt so right. Will gasped onto Mike’s lips at the feeling of Mike’s hand against his skin. This is exactly what he had been craving for so long. Mike. He had finally noticed him, and Will couldn’t be any happier.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought. Please give feedback, it would be very very greatly appreciated.


End file.
